Police threatening witness to frame Jaya: Sasikala

Bangalore: Sasikala Natarajan, estranged aide of Jayalalithaa on Friday charged police with threatening a witness to frame the Tamil Nadu chief minister in a land purchase deal in the wealth case.
Deposing before special court judge B M Mallikarjunaiah, trying the disproportionate asset case against Jayalalithaa, Sasikala, the second accused, said the witness, who is the land owner, had given "false evidence" before the court, dragging in Jayalalithaa`s name as he was threatened by police.
She was answering a question on purchase of 22 acres of land in Payyanoor.

Sasikala said the witness had come forward on his own to sell the property and that his statement made it clear police threatened him to give the statement involving Jayalalithaa, who was then not the chief minister.

"The intention of police appeared to be to please the then Karunanidhi government and get promotion," she said.

The judge also asked her a number of questions pertaining to purchase of over 25 acres in Uthukotai, which she later sold to Meadows Agro Farms.

Sasikala answered 40 questions today taking the total number of queries she has replied so far to 103, out of the over 1,000 framed by the court.

Earlier special public prosecutor B V Acharya objected to her reading from her notes, to which counsel C Manishankhar replied she needed to do that as it was impossible for her to remember what happened 20 years ago.

The judge said she should state that she does not remember certain facts and seek permission of the court to file a written statement.

Sasikala said she would write questions put to her as they are long winded and it would help her answer them properly.

Both Acharya and the judge objected to this, saying it would only delay the trial, but agreed when Manishankhar said she could not be denied this right "in the interest of justice".The court then adjourned to tomorrow further recording of her statement.